The Drowsy Chaperone

About Center Stage Theatre

MISSION:To provide the community with education and participation opportunities in live theatre performance and our audiences with an excellent theatre experience.

Established in 1929, Center Stage Theatre is a national award-winning volunteer theatre program. Its performance season, draws tens of thousands of theatre-goers from across the Great Lakes Bay Region and includes comedies, tragedies and musicals, from popular favorites to lesser-known titles. Off-Center Stage presents works on the cutting edge not included in the main season. The Peanut Gallery and Interim Theatre programs feature the talents of youth ages 10 through 21. Performances take place in the 1,500-seat Midland Center for the Arts Auditorium and the 400-seat Little Theatre.

Off-Center Stage

Off-Center Stage offers a variety of venues and opportunities to expand theatre arts offerings by producing reader’s theatre, new plays, monologue theatre, stand-up comedy and cutting-edge pieces not included in the main season.

Recent performances include The Rocky Horror Show, The SantaLand Diaries, The Laramie Project, [Title of Show], The Vagina Monologues and Bawdy Broadway Cabaret.

Dexter Brigham, Managing Director

“Center Stage Theatre is producing some of the most ambitious and exciting community theatre anywhere in the country, and our choirs consistently rank among the finest in the region. The energy and dedication of this community of artists delivers, and will continue to deliver, great performances on the MCFTA stages.”

~ Dexter Brigham

Dexter Brigham is a veteran producer, director and actor with more than 300 stage credits to his name. In 2004, he founded Festival 56, Illinois’ largest summer theatre festival.

Highlights of Dexter’s performing career include the title role in the Off-Broadway revival of The Robber Bridegroom, Fred/Petruchio in the 2003-2004 Broadway national tour of Kiss Me, Kate and Dewhurst in the 2002 national tour of The Scarlet Pimpernel. In 2009, he received the Illinois Alliance for Arts Education’s Artist Award.

Dexter came to the theatre after a childhood spent singing with the American Boychoir and various school and collegiate choirs, making him a great fit for Center Stage Theatre and Choirs.

Center Stage Theatre is an incorporated member group of Midland Center for the Arts, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation, and is a member of The American Association of Community Theatres, and Community Theatres of Michigan.